I Am Totally Cool With This Samsung Smart Fridge

When Samsung presented its new lineup of gear a CES 2013, it showed off a smart refrigerator with a built-in tablet that ran apps like Epicurious and Evernote. And oh, how we laughed. Evernote in a refrigerator? That’s preposterous! And then we saw it. And, you know what? Actually, it’s pretty great.

CES is a look at things to come. Sometimes later this year, sometimes far down the road, sometimes both. And that’s what the T9000 is. Yes, you can buy this and put it in your home later this year, but it’s also a hint as to what your future fridge will look like. While the screen was easy to mock, once you see it in action on a refrigerator it’s as natural as an in-dash GPS screen. It just seems meant to be.

An inventory app lets you itemize each ingredient in your chiller. Another app will help you find recipes from those objects in your refrigerator. You can add to your grocery list right in Evernote. And because it’s internet connected, when you add an item to your list at home, your partner’s grocery list gets updated in real time at the store. You’ll never forget eggs again. It also prints coupons, and clearly, when your fridge knows what’s inside it and what kind of things you shop for each week, it has the potential to deliver some really customized discounts. Which you’ll need, because even though Samsung hasn’t announced pricing on this beast, you can bet it won’t be cheap.

Oh, and we didn’t even get to one of its best features yet. It’s a massively big four-door fridge with three compartments, each of which has its own adjustable temperature setting. One compartment can even pull double duty as fridge or a freezer, depending on your needs. How do you set the temperature? It’s right there on the screen. Smart.